Patel is a controversial nominee, having long raged against the so-called Deep State and prioritized his loyalty to Trump.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, will have to defend an extensive history of controversial remarks and actions to a skeptical Senate committee.

The F.B.I. nominee has not only cast his political lot with the president, he has also used the connection to the Trump brand, Truth Social and other Trump-linked entities as a significant source of income over the past several years.

Later, speaking from the Senate floor, Durbin expressed “grave concerns” about Patel’s fitness to lead the F.B.I., calling him a “staunch political loyalist who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories and threatened to retaliate against those who have slighted him personally and politically.

The nominee for F.B.I. director made his nonprofit into a publicity machine, selling his children’s book, his clothing brand and his image as Donald Trump’s ultimate loyalist.